Scientists at an Israeli university have found a promising new way to stop the growth and spread of cancer cells while carrying out research to boost the size of peaches and nectarines, the university said on Sunday.

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem scientists found that a protein similar to one researched in their project had the effect of blocking blood supply to tumours.

“By blocking the blood supply to the tumours, actibind halted the ability of malignant cells to move through the blood stream,” the university said.

“Their approach has been shown to inhibit the malignant cells without affecting normal cells and without the severe side effects of traditional treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy,” it said.

Oded Shoseyov, who led the research, told Reuters his team had succeeded in using the protein to reduce the number of fruits on a tree, thereby increasing the size of each fruit. The technique worked by inhibiting the growth of pollen cells.

“We hypothesised that since the mechanism of growth is very similar - between the pollen cell and the cancer cell - that the protein would have the same effect,” he said.

Shoseyov’s team had used genetic engineering to produce a variant of the protein “that showed an impressive anti-cancer potential”, the university said.

“These results have raised broad interest in international scientific meetings and in business circles,” it said.